Happy New Year
by JanSuch
Summary: Nikola has a special bottle of wine for New Year's Eve, but where is Helen? Very short story.


A/N: I don't own Sanctuary or the Sanctuary characters, and I'm not making any profit from this.

This is very short because I only thought of it this morning. I'll start a new continuation story when I can come up with a plot!

Nikola walked into Will's office with a bottle of wine and two glasses. He didn't bother with a greeting, he just asked "William, where is your boss?"

Will was just finishing up a few things on his computer; he was dressed up in a suit, but the jacket hung on the back of the chair. He said distractedly "She went to a party on the surface."

Nikola closed Will's laptop, almost on his fingers. Will looked up and Nikola leaned forward and said "Details, I need details."

Irritated, Will replied "How should I know? It's almost New Year's Eve, there are a million parties going on. In fact, I have one to go to myself." He stood up and put on his jacket.

Henry came in and said "Hey Will, Abby said she's ready whenever you are. Dude, you look sharp."

"Thanks. We're doing dinner first, then the party. Are you sure you and Erica don't want to come too?"

"Yeah, we're going to settle for a glass of sparkling cider at midnight, if we can both stay awake that long. If we're lucky the clink of the glasses won't wake up Angelina."

"Maybe next year."

Nikola interrupted "Forget all that, the important thing is I need to find Helen."

Henry asked "You have some kind of crisis?"

"No, I have a Chateau Lafitte '92, which is much more important."

"Well find her yourself" Henry muttered and he and Will went out of the office together.

Nikola sat down at the desk and carefully set down the wine and glasses. He opened Will's laptop and started typing. After a few seconds he sat back triumphantly until Helen's face appeared on the screen with a recorded message.

"Will, I told you whatever came up to just handle it yourself. I'll be back tomorrow and we can go over any problems then. And if this is Nikola, then find something to amuse yourself because I have other things to do tonight, and don't bother to wait up for me. Happy New Year."

Nikola made a face at the screen and turned off the laptop. He took his wine and glasses back to his suite where he considered drinking it himself, but decided against it. Half the fun was being able to tease Helen about allowing her to share her own wine with him. It hadn't been easy to find the bottle either; she kept her own private stock in odd places so he wouldn't consume it before she even had the chance to taste it.

He put it away carefully in his suite, out of sight. The game was for him to find her wine; she didn't go searching for his, although if he left it where it could be easily spotted she would likely take it and hide it again.

He paced for a while, but it was pointless he knew. She wouldn't be back until the wee hours of the morning at the earliest, but he was determined to be waiting for her when she walked in. It wasn't right for her to go off and leave him on New Year's Eve without a word . . .

Oh. This was her way of getting revenge for him going off and leaving her. Except he hadn't really, and she was the one who made him leave by not letting him work . . .

Nikola shook his head; there was no point in re-hashing that. They had each just done what they thought was right, even though it had made neither of them happy. He considered packing up and leaving, going back to Bhalasaam to work, but Helen could follow him now and he really didn't feel like working. He felt like celebrating the New Year. It wouldn't be much of a celebration without Helen, but if she could do it so could he.

Nikola dressed up, took his little control device, and went down to the basement. Actually he would be in time to hit Paris before midnight, then London, Rio, and New York. He did love the Times Square crowd. He hit "on" and then the button for Paris; a brilliant white light flared within the gate frame in front of him and he walked into it.

Eight hours later he walked back out of a bright light into the Sanctuary basement. He was disheveled and stank from nine different types of alcoholic beverages. But as a vampire he was still completely sober if in a better mood than when he had left.

Nikola went to Helen's suite and walked in. But it was silent with just the one small light glowing dimly in the sitting room that she always left on when she might be late. Damn it, he had wanted her to see that he had been out partying too, and now he wasn't going to be able to shower and change until she got home, and he did reek rather badly.

He took a chair and a small book with him to the basement, and planted the chair in front of the transport gate and himself in the chair. He took out the book and began to read. He planned to slip it into his pocket as soon as the gate was activated so he could give Helen his full attention.

He had a long wait. It was nearly eight a.m. when the light flared in the gate; he had long since finished the book. Helen came through, dressed in a red and gold gown and very high heels, and not in the least disheveled. Nikola stood up.

"Where were you?" he demanded.

"Doing my job. It looks like you didn't exactly spend the night working." Helen got within a few feet of him and wrinkled her nose. "What have you been drinking? You smell like turpentine, beer, wine, and . . . licorice?"

"Anise" Nikola said, waving her question away. "That's certainly an odd get-up for catching Abnormals."

"I was wooing investors, Nikola." Helen walked out the door and started down the corridor to the elevator with him in her wake. He caught up and asked "Wooing what investors how?"

"If you must know I spent the night dancing with a dozen wealthy powerful men and got commitments for a respectable sum of money. You, on the other hand, appear to have been rolling in a gutter with a bottle of very cheap wine."

"Hey, it wasn't all cheap wine; some of it was cheap beer and free tequila. You could have at least told me what you were doing, I had a very expensive bottle of wine for us, but no you."

They got in the elevator and Helen said sharply "You don't own me Nikola, and frankly you have become a two-note song. Either you are working on some invention or you want to sit around drinking wine with me; honestly you've become a bore."

"But I'm me. Nikola Tesla is not boring. Would you rather I go back to trying to take over the world? As I recall you didn't find that boring."

"Nikola, I spent the evening with intelligent people discussing world events and abstract philosophical questions. It was quite refreshing."

They exited the elevator and headed for their suites. Nikola said sulkily "I can discuss abstract philosophical questions, they just don't seem to come up when we're together."

"Your philosophy, like your knowledge of world events, is decades out of date."

"But it's all the same" Nikola protested. "There's a war over there, people are starving to death in a different place, and there's some huge natural disaster in a third place. For variety sometimes all three things happen together in the same place. And it's always 'bicker, bicker, bicker'. Nothing has changed in the last century, except the efficiency with which humans can kill each other."

Helen stopped outside her door. "You're right, Nikola, bad things keep happening. The difference is the people I was with tonight care, and you don't. You never have, except in the abstract."

"That's not true, I do care. I've come up with lots of ideas to make the world a better place. I've just never had the financial backing to actually achieve any of them."

"I don't expect you to fix the world. But you can help people and Abnormals as well, one at a time. That's what we do here at the Sanctuary, help individuals" Helen said softly. "Good night Nikola."

"Helen?"

She stopped and turned back to him. He continued "I'm sorry about this," gesturing at his soiled condition. "I was angry you went off without me. I could have helped, you know. I get that it was sort of a payback, but I don't want to play that game, do you?"

Helen hesitated, considering his point. "You're right, it was a little petty of me, but you deserved it. I'm often far too nice to you, Nikola, and I let you get away with too much." Helen reached out and smoothed down half of his collar that had been standing up; it didn't really improve his appearance very much.

"Do you really think I'm boring?"

Helen laughed. "Actually, yes a little bit right now, but I'm glad. Otherwise you tend to be far too exciting and I can use the occasional quiet time."

Nikola moved in close and whispered in her ear "I can think of something much more exciting for us to do."

"Nikola, I'm exhausted and you need a shower. Rain check?"

Nikola nodded. "Tomorrow then. I have this wonderful bottle of Chateau Lafitte '92 . . ."

Helen sighed. "You found that, did you? Well save me some. Good night, Nikola."

"Good morning, Helen, and Happy New Year."


End file.
